Jesuit Superior General Announces Four New Universal Apostolic Preferences

February 19, 2019 — The Society of
Jesus has four new core priorities that will guide its mission for the next 10
years, Jesuit Superior General Father Arturo Sosa announced Tuesday.

Called
“Universal Apostolic Preferences” (UAPs) and crafted through a 16-month
dialogue process with Jesuits around the world, the priorities include
promoting discernment and the Spiritual Exercises; walking with the excluded;
caring for our common home; and journeying with youth.

“Our desire has
been to find the best way to collaborate in the Lord’s mission, the best way to
serve the Church at this time, the best contribution we can make with what we
are and have, seeking to do what is for the greater divine service and the more
universal good,” Father General wrote in a letter introducing the UAPs to the
whole Society of Jesus. “We have lived through a process that has produced,
step by step, a consensus that we believe is guided by the Holy Spirit.”

The UAPs
replace Apostolic Preferences that were released by then-Superior General
Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach in 2003, which prioritized ministries in China,
Africa, the intellectual apostolate, the Roman houses, and among migrants and
refugees. The worldwide discernment process leading to the update focused on
three main questions: “Where do we hear the call of Jesus today as He carries
His cross in the world?” “What is the Church asking of us?” and “Where are we
most needed?”

“I hope the
UAPs will challenge Jesuits and our collaborators to think critically about our
work in the world and to take bold action in sharing the Good News of Jesus
Christ,” said Fr. Timothy P. Kesicki, SJ, president of the Jesuit Conference of
Canada and the United States and a participant in the UAP dialogue process.
“The UAPs aren’t a new program to implement, though they might lead us to start
new programs. Rather, they reflect certain movements of the Holy Spirit we
encountered through the discernment process that point a way forward. The UAPs
should help sharpen our focus on what’s really central to our mission at this
point in history.”

Throughout the preparatory
dialogue, several central themes emerged: accompaniment with the people of God
at every stage of life and in every social setting; sharing the gifts of
Ignatian Spirituality with a broader audience; and caring for God’s creation.
Father General and his team boiled them down to the four priorities and shared
them with Pope Francis earlier this year. The Holy Father replied with a single
question: “Is this what you need the Society of Jesus to be doing at this point
in its history?” After a period of prayer and reflection, Pope Francis returned
the UAPs to Father General — not just as a document, but as a mission to the
Jesuits from the Holy Father himself.

“The
preferences seek to unleash a process of apostolic revitalization and
creativity that makes us better servants of reconciliation and justice,” Father
General wrote. “Let us undertake this process, designing it and assessing it in
accord with persons, times, and places in the light of the Church’s
orientations and the Spirit’s guidance.”

For more information, visit the website of the Curia, available in four languages:

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